Reaction to the fourth series of Doha Debates, hosted by Tim Sebastian, has been overwhelmingly positive in Qatar and abroad, according to a senior official of BBC World News.

Qatar is free to drop its peg to the US dollar, US Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson said yesterday, as the Gulf oil producer battles with near record inflation.

ASPIRE Academy has become the first sports academy to be awarded the “Committed to Excellence” distinction from the European Foundation for Quality Management.

The number of traffic accidents has come down as a result of enforcement of the new traffic law which came into effect late last year, according to the first aid section of the Hamad Medical Corporation. A local Arabic daily said the section receives 200 to 250 notifying calls per day. This is a significant decrease compared to the calls received last year. The Pen

Qatari women who are married to non-Qataris can get monthly assistance from the Social Affairs Department at the Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs. This is based on a draft of a new law on social security recently completed by a committee.

Citizens and expatriates who intend to get married in Qatar should undergo a mandatory pre-marital checkup for genetic, infectious and chronic diseases from September, the National Health Authority announced yesterday.